The Common European Framework in its political and educational context What is the Common European Framework?

4.6
Texts
As explained in Chapter 2, ‘text’ is used to cover any piece of language, whether a spoken
utterance or a piece of writing, which users/learners receive, produce or exchange. There
can thus be no act of communication through language without a text; language act-
ivities and processes are all analysed and classified in terms of the relation of the
user/learner and any interlocutor(s) to the text whether viewed as a finished product, an
artefact, or as an objective or as a product in process of elaboration. These activities and
processes are dealt with in some detail in section 4.4 and 4.5. Texts have many different
functions in social life and result in corresponding differences in form and substance.
Different media are used for different purposes. Differences of medium and purpose and
function lead to corresponding differences not only in the context of messages, but also
in their organisation and presentation. Accordingly, texts may be classified into differ-
ent text types belonging to different genres. See also Section 5.2.3.2 (macrofunctions).
4.6.1
Texts and media
Every text is carried by a particular medium, normally by sound waves or written arte-
facts. Subcategories can be established according to physical properties of the medium
which affect the processes of production and reception, e.g. for speech, direct close-up
speech as against public address or telephone, or for writing print as against cursive
writing, or different scripts. To communicate using a particular medium, users/learners
must have the necessary sensory/motor equipment. In the case of speech, they must be
able to hear well under the given conditions and have fine control of the organs of pho-
nation and articulation. In the case of normal writing, they must be able to see with the
necessary visual acuity and have control of their hands. They must then have the know-
ledge and skills described elsewhere, on the one hand to identify, understand and inter-
pret the text or on the other to organise, formulate and produce it. This will be true for
any text, whatever its nature.
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
to what degree which skills are required for the satisfactory accomplishment of the
communicative tasks the learner is expected to undertake;
•
which skills can be presupposed and which will need to be developed;
•
which reference aids the learner will need/be equipped/be required to use effectively.
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The above must not discourage people who have learning difficulties or sensory/motor
disabilities from learning or using foreign languages. Devices ranging from simple hearing
aids to eye-operated computer speech synthesisers have been developed to overcome even
the most severe sensory and motor difficulties, whilst the use of appropriate methods and
strategies have enabled young people with learning difficulties to achieve worthwhile
foreign language learning objectives with remarkable success. Lip-reading, the exploita-
tion of residual hearing and phonetic training have enabled the severely deaf to achieve a
high level of speech communication in a second or foreign language. Given the necessary
determination and encouragement, human beings have an extraordinary capacity to over-
come obstacles to communication and the production and understanding of texts.
In principle, any text can be carried by any medium. However, in practice medium and
text are more closely related. Scripts do not generally carry the full meaningful phonetic
information carried by speech. Alphabetic scripts do not generally carry prosodic infor-
mation systematically (e.g. stress, intonation, pausing, stylistic reduction, etc.).
Consonantal and logographic scripts carry less. Paralinguistic features are usually unrep-
resented in any script, though they may of course be referred to in the text of a novel,
play, etc. In compensation, paratextual features are employed in writing, which are tied
to the spatial medium and not available to speech. Moreover, the nature of the medium
exercises a strong pressure on the nature of the text and vice-versa. As extreme examples,
a stone inscription is difficult and expensive to produce and is very durable and immov-
able. An air-letter is cheap and easy to use, easily transported, but light and fragile.
Electronic communication using a VDU need not produce a permanent artefact at all.
The texts they typically carry are correspondingly contrasted: in the one case, a carefully
composed, frugal text preserving monumental information for future generations and
inducing reverence for the place and person(s) celebrated, and in the other, a hastily
scribbled personal note of topical but ephemeral interest to the correspondents. A
similar ambiguity of classification thus arises between text-types and media to that
between text-types and activities. Books, magazines and newspapers are, from their phys-
ical nature and appearance, different media. From the nature and structure of their con-
tents they are different text-types. Medium and text-type are closely related and both are
derivative from the function they perform.
4.6.2
Media include:
•
voice (viva voce);
•
telephone, videophone, teleconference;
•
public address systems;
•
radio broadcasts;
•
TV;
•
cinema films;
•
computer (e-mail, CD Rom, etc.);
•
videotape, -cassette, -disc;
•
audiotape, -cassette, -disc;
•
print;
•
manuscript;
•
etc.
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4.6.3
Text-types include:
Spoken, e.g.:
public announcements and instructions;
public speeches, lectures, presentations, sermons;
rituals (ceremonies, formal religious services);
entertainment (drama, shows, readings, songs);
sports commentaries (football, cricket, boxing, horse-racing, etc.);
news broadcasts;
public debates and discussion;
inter-personal dialogues and conversations;
telephone conversations;
job interviews.
Written, e.g.:
books, fiction and non-fiction, including literary journals;
magazines;
newspapers;
instruction manuals (DIY, cookbooks, etc.);
textbooks;
comic strips;
brochures, prospectuses;
leaflets;
advertising material;
public signs and notices;
supermarket, shop, market stall signs;
packaging and labelling on goods;
tickets, etc.;
forms and questionnaires;
dictionaries (monolingual and bilingual), thesauri;
business and professional letters, faxes;
personal letters;
essays and exercises;
memoranda, reports and papers;
notes and messages, etc.;
databases (news, literature, general information, etc.).
The following scales, based upon those developed in the Swiss projects described in
Appendix B, give examples of activities involving a written text output produced in
response to, respectively, a spoken or written input. Only the higher levels of these
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
which media the learner will need/be equipped/be required to handle a) receptively
b) productively c) interactively d) in mediation.
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activities can enable a learner to meet the requirements of university studies or profes-
sional training, though some ability to deal with simple input text and to produce a
written response is feasible at more modest levels.